We had a pause in our master bathroom remodel, and we decided we needed some on-the-water time! Sonas is still at Lamb’s Yacht Center for some TLC, so we decided to take the big RIB out for a spin.
Little Sonas is an AB 15 DLX Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) with a 60 horse power Yamaha engine. We bought her in 2010 after our jet ski had been sunk by one of the children for the umteenth time and we weren’t going to have it rebuilt again! We still wanted something that we could pull a towable and wakeboard with. Plus take us for shrimp and beer to the local waterfront establishments!
Paul had been looking for a replacement RIB for a year or so when this one came up on the local classifieds. An elderly gentleman had bought it with the hope of going fishing, but wasn’t using it. It was two years old and only had 27 hours on the engine. We offered him full asking price as it was in as-new condition and a very good value. We have it on a floating dock on the inside of our dock behind the house.
Sian ran over to Firehouse Subs and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and we packed them in a cooler along with drinks for ourselves and water for Bella. We were off the dock by 12:15 and out through the Queen’s Harbour lock by 12:30.
Bella was. as always, ready to go!
The AICW was nice and flat and we were able to open the throttle up a bit and run along at around 30 knots. As we were in the slow zone approaching Sister’s Creek bridge we were surrounded by a pod of dolphin – Bella’s friends!
As we passed the free dock we found it totally empty. Not something we usually see when we have boats transiting south and then north for the season!
Fort George River was totally empty of people, we were the only ones there. Low tide was at 3:20 so we had plenty of sandbar to play on. We walked as Bella discovered bait fish in the water’s edge and chased them – sometimes getting confused with the splashes her own feet were making- resulting in a lot of spinning!!
An empty Fort George
We had our picnic and walked the sandbar, watching Bella wade up to the haunches in the water, and wondered at how she was able to read the color of the water and avoid the deeper parts of the tide pools.
Back through the lock at 3:00. A lovely afternoon on the water, carefree, and relaxing!